New CUC deputy director to begin work this week

New Commonwealth Utilities Corp. deputy director Wallon Young is expected to arrive on island this week to help with the restoration of the power plants, at which time CUC can decide whether or not to renew the contract with Aggreko.

“The best thing to do is to wait for Wallon,” said CUC executive director Antonio Muña. “He was someone we feel had the expertise and time and effort to honestly engage his services, so the next time we address the issue it will probably be with him. Hopefully, he can communicate that all the effort that has been done so far will put us in line with being able to make a decision with what we need to do by June 13.”

CUC must decide by that date if it is going to extend its one-year contract with Aggreko for an additional six months. The utility agency has been renting the generators, which produce 15 megawatts of power, from Aggreko for $504,000 per month.

Muña has said in the past that ideally CUC would be producing enough power to end the contract with Aggreko but an extension is not out of the question.

Power Plant 2 currently has one engine up and running, producing two megawatts. Privately-run Power Plant 4 regularly produces 14 megawatts and, with the 15 megawatts provided by the emergency Aggreko generators, CUC has been able to meet the daily island demand of approximately 41 megawatts

Restoration work has already begun on the engines, but Young will be able to develop a complete plan, Muña said.

Of the eight engines at Power Plant 1, only a handful work on a regular basis. By the end of the year CUC hopes to have engines 1, 5, and 7 up and running, the executive director said. During Young’s initial 30 to 60 days, he will work in assessing the engines, Muña said.

“We’ll continue the process [of restoration] but basically he [Young] will come up with a report to focus on to what extent we’ll be able disengage from Aggrekko,” he added.

In December, Nikolao Pula, director of the Office of Insular Affairs, agreed to Gov. Benigno Fitial’s request to reprogram $3.8 million in funds to help with the effort. The $3.8 million, along with leftover money from OIA, totals $5.4 million, enough for the necessary engines to be repaired, Muña said.

Young, a former American Samoa Power Authority official, will earn $156,000 to $180,000 per year as deputy director for Utilities Systems Rehabilitation. His contract is for two years.